Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.
Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation.
A 65-man French Foreign Legion infantry patrol fights a force of nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers to nearly the last man in Hacienda Camarón, Mexico.
Albert Einstein writes his thesis Eine neue Bestimmung der Moleküldimensionen ("A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions").
World War II: The British submarine HMS Seraph surfaces near Huelva to cast adrift a dead man dressed as a courier and carrying false invasion plans.
In Nevada, Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam for the second time.
In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established.
U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg, Russia are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei and Anastasia, two of the children of the last Tsar of Russia, whose entire family was executed at Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks.
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